Edge trimming apparatus



May 21, 1968 R. K. ALLWARDT EDGE TRIMMING APPARATUS 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 6, 1966 1 N VEN TOR. Edi 5'57 K fl/lA/IKFT y 21, 1968 R. K. ALLWARDT 3,383,725

EDGE TRIMMING APPARATUS Filed May 6, 1966 3 Sheets-Sheet 2- L INVENTOR.

May 21, 1968 R. K. ALLWARDT EDGE TRTMMING APPARATUS Filed May 6, 1965 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 i- INVENTOR.

BY W

United States Patent 3,383,725 EDGE TRIMMING APPARATUS Robert Allwardt, Grand Rapids, Mich., assignor to Wolverine World Wide, Inc, a corporation of Michigan Filed May 6, 1966, Ser. No. 548,098 8 Claims. (Cl. 12142) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Edge trimming apparatas for angularly distorted shoe sole and heel workpieces unattached to the shoe and having the heel and adjacent sole portion extending diagonally at an angle from the major portion of the sole, involving workpiece clamping means capable of receiving the workpieces in a flattened condition with the heel aligned with the major sole portion, edge trimming tool means, workpiece advancing pushing means for pushing the distorted workpieces into the clamping means, and workpiece bending and flattening aligning means cofigurated and arranged to flatten and align the angularly distorted workpieces as they are advanced to the clamping means; said last mentioned means having tapered heel contacting surface area and flat sole contacting area, and forming a convergent mouth with surfaces shiftable together to a generally parallel relationship. The apparatus preferably handles two workpieces in mirror image relation.

Edge trimming method for angularly distorted shoe sole and heel workpieces unattached to the shoe and having the heel and adjacent sole portion extending diagonally at an angle from the major portion of the sole, involving bending the angularly distorted workpieces to a flattened condition with the heel aligned with the major sole portion, clamping the flattened workpiece, and trimming it.

This invention relates to shoe machinery, and more particularly to an apparatus for peripherally trimming shoe sole workpieces comprised of soles with attached inside spring heels.

The apparatus of this invention basically employs the type of equipment disclosed and claimed in copending application Ser. No. 406,234 entitled, Heel and Sole Trimmer, and filed Oct. 26, 1964. The present improvement enables such apparatus to operate effectively on soles with attached inside spring heels.

Apparatus of the type disclosed in the above identified copending application employs three clamping plates into which two attached sole and heel workpieces are inserted edgewise. The clamps are rotated and advanced on a pattern basis into revolving trimming cutters. This equipment has been found to operate effectively and etficiently for ordinary soles and heels unattached to the shoes.

However, some shoes presently employ so-called spring rubber sole and heel combinations wherein the heel insert is mounted above the rear portion of the sole rather than beneath it as usual. The sole element is thus distorted beneath the heel insert, causing it to have a distorted cross section like that illustrated by the sole S1 on upper workpiece W1, or the sole S2 on lower workpiece W2 in FIG. 4. It has been found that if such workpieces are peripherally trimmed while so oriented, the periphery has a distorted, unacceptable appearance when the sole and heel units are subsequently reformed and attached to the shoes.

To effect accurate peripheral trimming of such combination sole and inside heel inserts, it has been determined that the sole and heel workpieces should be temporarily formed into the final orientation that they would take on the shoe, against the inherent bias of the soles, so that the heel insert is aligned and generally coplanar with Cir 3,383,725 Patented May 21 1968 ice the front major portion of the sole element as shown by the workpieces in FIG. 3.

Upon the inventor herein discovering such factor, he determined through experience that real difliculty arises when trying to load the spring heel and sole workpieces into the clamping means of the type shown in the above identified copending application. The strangely configured rubber sole and heel units, when in their free state will not dependably slide into the clamps when pushed edgewise and laterally toward the clamps.

This is particularly true of the lower sole unit. The workpieces bend, twist, drag, fold or otherwise turn or snag so that proper alignment in the clamp is seldom achieved unless specific steps are taken as explained hereinafter. Automated operation becomes impossible unless proper dependable feeding into the clamps can be achieved.

It has been found that both of these difficulties, i.e., distorted appearance and improper clamp loading, can be overcome by acting upon the workpieces as they are advanced edgewise toward the clamps. In the "preferred form of the invention, this is done in a particularly unique fashion by novel apparatus located between the clamp elements and the pushing type, sole advancing mechanism that feeds the workpieces into the clamps.

It is an object of this invention therefore to provide a novel apparatus for peripherally trimming spring sole and heel workpieces that are in free form, attached to each other but unattached to shoes.

Another object of this invention is to provide a novel method for peripherally trimming spring sole and heel workpieces attached to each other but unattached to shoes.

Another object of this invention is to provide apparatus for handling and advancing to the trimming apparatus soles with inside spring heels, and to do so dependably, being assured of properly aligned relation in the clamps for peripheral trimming. I

Another object of this invention is to provide novel apparatus for accurately and dependably aligning the soles and heels of workpieces having inside spring heels while workpieces are advanced into clamping means for trimming.

These and other related objects of this invention will become apparent upon studying the following specification in conjunction with the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of the trimming apparatus employing the invention herein;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary plan view of a portion of the apparatus in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a front elevational view of a pair of attached spring sole and heel units shown mounted in the clamping means and ready for peripheral trimming;

FIG. 4 is a front elevational view showing a pair of free unclamped sole units containing the sole elements and the attached in side spring heel elements, and showing the relationship thereof to the clamping elements just prior to clamp loading;

FIG. 5 is a front elevational view of the sole bending elements employed in combination with the clamping elements (shown in phantom) with loading of the workpieces (shown in phantom) into the clamping elements;

FIG. 6 is a side elevational view of the apparatus in FIG. 5 showing the initial stages of the clamp loading operation; and

FIG. 7 is a front elevational view of a spring sole and heel unit similar to FIG. 3.

Referring now specifically to the drawings, the apparatus 10 in FIG. I basically includes a framework 12 that rotationally mounts sole trimming mechanism 14, a sole advancing and rotating carriage subassembly 16, and a workpiece infeed subassembly 18.

The framework subassembly 12 may be of any suitable construction, including legs and 22, cross braces 24 and 26, and mounting rails 28 for traveling of carriage subassembly 16 toward trimming subassembly 14.

The trimming subassembly includes at least one pair of rotational cutter or trimming elements 32 and 34 spaced vertically from each other to accommodate a pair of spaced lower and upper workpieces respectively. These elements are mounted on a rotational shaft 36 which extends through suitable bearing housing 33 mounted to the framework. The shaft is driven by a belt (not shown) and pulley 40. The trimming subassembly 14 is normally mounted in one particular position to cooperate with the movable workpiece carriage, but could be movable also.

The carriage subassembly 16 includes a pair of support members 44 that ride along the tracks 28 to guide the carriage in the direction indicated by the arrow, toward trimming elements 32 and 34, and then return to the initial loading station (shown in FIG. 1). A crank 46 and linkage 48 assembly connect to support elements 50 of the carriage subassembly, and are powered to advance it toward the trimming means.

The carriage has mounted thereon three spaced clamp elements 60, 62 and 64 which cooperate together to retain a pair of sole and heel workpieces W1 and W2 for trimming by cutters 32 and 34. Upper clamp element is supported on the lower end of a reciprocating clamp closing power cylinder mechanism attached on its upper end to a suitable support 72. Lower clamp element 64 is mounted on the upper end of a power closing mechanism 74 which is capable of reciprocating vertically to operate the lower clamp 64. Both are capable of rotating. More specifically, explained in the above identified copending application, upper clamp is rotatable on its support 70, and lower clamp may be rotated under power. The central clamp element 62 is not attached to the upper and lower clamp, but, when not squeezed between a pair of sole elements S1 and S2, is retained on a special support means 88 that temporarily suspends element 62 'by a pair of releasable fingers fit) and 92 which are described in detail in the above identified copending application. These releasable fingers enable support 88 to temporarily hold central element 62 while carriage 16 is at the loading station illustrated in FIG. 1, and then release element 62 as the carriage moves away from the loading station toward the trimming elements 32 and 34 (as indicated by the arrow in FIG. 1). Upon return of the carriage from the trimming station, back to the loading station, the fingers again pick up element 62 to support it when the clamp opens.

When the clamping mechanism with the retained workpieces W1 and W2 are approaching and at the trimming station, the workpieces are rotated by means of motor (FIG. 2) driving rotational drive shaft 102 through coupling 104 and gear box mechanism 106, to convert the rotation of horizontal shaft 102 to vertical rotation of shaft 108 attached to the lower clamp 64 so that the entire periphery of the workpieces are brought into trimming contact with trimmers 32 and 34. During rotation, the carriage is reciprocated back and forth controlled amounts to enable the contour of the shoe sole workpieces to be followed according to the control mechanism described in the above identified copending patent application.

Feeding of the individual workpieces into the clamping mechanism is done by a pair of laterally spaced, parallel vertically oriented pushing plates 110 and 112. These plates, mounted to spacer element 114, push against the edges of the toe and heel areas of the workpieces as the plates are shifted longitudinally toward the clamping mechanism by a fluid cylinder 118 (FIG. 1). This fluid cylinder has one end attached to the framework, and the opposite end attached to a pivotal crank 120 intermediate its end, with one end of the crank being pivotally attached to the framework, and the upper end attached to spacer element 114. The front end of these plates 110 and 112 may have small bumper elements 110a and 112a (FIG. 2). These plates and the bumper elements move from the outer position shown by the phantom line position of bumpers 110a and 112a in FIG. 2 to the solid line position shown in FIG. 2. Prior to being pushed toward the clamps, the workpieces are positioned on fixed stationary horizontal guide plates 124 and 124 which are between plates 110 and 112. This portion of the feed mechanism is basically the same as that shown in the above identified copending application.

As explained in the introduction hereto, this feeding subassembly, carriage subassembly, and trimming subassembly works very effectively for normal sole units composed of a sole element and an attached heel element. However, when inside spring heels are employed, wherein the sole element is deformed around the underside of the spring heel insert when mounted on the shoe, the workpieces W1 and W2 have a distorted configuration prior to attachment to the shoe. The thinner sole member is distorted against its inherent bias by the thicker contoured heel member in the manner shown in FIG. 4. The heel members e.g. H1 and H2, are tapered near the front ends thereof to enable the sole to have a secure attachment contour when attached to the shoe assembly 11 shown in FIG. 7. These distorted workpieces cannot be directly pushed between elements 60, 62 and 64 of the clamping mechanism since they tend to fold, bend and bind as they are entering the clamp. It has been found that the sole units must be temporarily distorted to the same orientation that they will have when attached to the shoe soles, i.e. from the orientation shown in FIG. 4, to that shown in FIG. 3, in order to be properly trimmed, and in order to be loaded dependably into the clamps. In order to accomplish this, the infeed subassembly 18 is supplemented by special reorientating mechanism 200 for the lower workpiece W2 and means 220 and 222 for the upper workpiece W2.

Mechanism 200 is composed of an element, preferably a plate 202, having a sole contacting surface. The element is mounted to a rocking arm 204 which is pivotally connected at its lower end to a pivot shaft 206 (FIG. 1), so that the plate can be shifted from an upwardly inwardly slanting orientation shown in FIGS. 1 and 6, to a horizontal position having its upper sole contacting surface aligned with the upper surface of the lower clamp element 64, and parallel to and spaced from the bottom surface element 88. This shifting action is achieved by power cylinder 210 pivotally mounted at its lower end to the framework and having the extended end of its piston rod pivotally mounted to arm 204 intermediate the ends of the arm. As the lower workpiece is advanced by plates 110 and 112 toward the spaced between clamping elements 62 and 64, the sole moves from the solid line position shown in FIG. 6 to the phantom line position when it drops off the lower elongated support plate 124 onto the upwardly inwardly slanted or diagonally oriented plate 202. As it reaches this position, plates 110 and 112 trigger a suitable switching mechanism, such as a microswitch 212, to actuate a control valve, e.g., a solenoid valve or the like, controlling fluid cylinder 210. Cylinder 210 is then actuated to cause it to extend. Extension of this cylinder pivots arm 204 on its pivot shaft 206, there-by shiftingthe diagonal element 202 to a horizontal elevated position adjacent and parallel to support element 88. Thus, the workpiece W2, oriented with its heel insert H2 upwardly, is pressed up against element 88 to force the spring heel element downwardly into alignment with the major frontal portion of the sole. Element 88 thus has a dual function of intermittently supporting clamp element 62 and cooperating with flattening element 202. During pivoting of plate 202, the workpiece W2 is continuously advanced to be pushed in between clamping elements 62 and 64.

The mechanism for upper workpiece W1 which is introduced with the heel portion H1 on the underside and hanging downwardly (as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6), must deform this heel portion upwardly as the workpiece is advanced by plates 110 and 112 off the end of guide 124. This is done in cooperation with a guide block 220 positioned in alignment with a depressed heel. The guide has an upwardly outwardly tapered surface 226 so that, as the workpiece is advanced, this tapered surface slowly bends the heel and sole upwardly into alignment with the major horizontal portion of the sole element. The sole is prevented from simply rising rather than deforming, by a configurated retention bar 222 which overlies the sole element and extends toward upper clamp element 60.

In operation of the trimming apparatus therefor, when carriage assembly 16 is in the loading position shown in FIG. 1, the feed-in subassembly 18 advances a pair of workpieces W1 and W2 which are oriented as shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 6, by advancing plates 110- and 112 to push the workpieces otf support plates 124 and 124 toward the vertically spread open clamping mechanism composed of clamps 60, 62 and 64. In this position, central clamp element 62 is retained by fingers 90 and 92 eX- tending from fixed support element 88. When the lower workpiece W2 reaches the phantom line position shown in FIG. 6, the advancing mechanism switch 212 activates the valve to operate cylinder 210, thereby pivoting the plate 202 from its upwardly inwardly oriented position to its horizontal position beneath support element 88. This causes the lower sole element S2 to be aligned in the position shown in FIG. 3 against its inherent bias, and thus pushed in this orientation between clamping elements 62 and 64. At the same time, upper workpiece W1 is being slowly bent to its aligned position, by engagement of the heel portion thereof with slanted surface 226 of guide block 220, and retention of the workpiece by guide bar 222. The clamp elements are spaced just sufiiciently to allow the flattened workpiece to be slidably inserted. When the spring heel sole units are positioned between the clamping elements, they are aligned in proper relationship, so that, with closing of the clamps, they are ready for trimming. The carriage subassembly is then advanced in the direction indicated by the arrow in FIG. 1, toward trimming elements 32 and 34. When the carriage subassembly reaches the trimming station, the power motor mechanism 100 and its connections rotate the clamping elements in a controlled manner while the carriage is reciprocated slightly back and forth to accommodate the peripheral configuration of the sole elements, in a pattern controlled reltaionship. Upon completion of the trimming, the carriage subassembly is returned to its loading position. The clamps then open and a pair of new sole units are inserted which push out the trimmed sole units.

It is conceivable that those familiar with this technology may readily appreciate additional advantages not specifically recited herein. It is also understandable that within the scope of the novel concepts presented, that various minor structural deviations from the preferred construction shown might be made. Therefore, the invention is intended to be limited only by the scope of the claims herein, rather than by the specific preferred details illustrated in the drawings.

I claim:

1. Edge trimming apparatus for trimming flexible shoe sole and heel workpieces formed of a shoe sole with an inside spring heel attached thereto so as to cause the sole to have an angular distortion, comprising: trimming tool means; workpiece-clamping securing means shiftable between a first condition capable of receiving flattened aligned workpieces and a second clamping condition; sole and heel workpiece handling means including means to advance the angularly distorted untrimmed sole and heel workpieces to said workpiece clamping securing means; workpiece flattening aligning means adjacent said securing means, configurated and arranged to bend and flatten the distorted soles to align the soles and attached heels of the workpieces; and drive means to cause relative movement between said workpiece securing means and said tool means for peripherally trimming the workpieces.

2. A shoe sole and heel edge trimming machine for distorted workpieces comprising soles with attached inside spring heels, comprising: trimming tool means; sole and heel workpiece gripping means; means for causing relative movement between said gripping means and said tool means on a pattern to trim the peripheral edge portion of attached sole and heel workpieces retained in said gripping means; said gripping means being separable for edgewise insertion of attached sole and heel workpieces thereinto; sole and heel workpiece pushing feed means operably aligned with said gripping means and shiftable to insert attached sole and heel workpieces into said gripping means; and sole bending means operatively associated adjacent said feed means and gripping means to bend the sole of the infeeding sole and heel workpieces into alignment for trimming.

3. The apparatus in claim 1 wherein said aligning means includes sole bending means between said advancing means and said securing means, having tapered heel contacting surface area and flat sole contacting surface area to bend the workpiece as it is advanced to said securing means, to orient the heel of the workpiece into alignment with the sole.

4. The apparatus in claim 1 wherein said securing means include spaced clamping elements movable toward each other for clamping inside spring sole and heel workpieces therebetween; said advancing means comprises pusher means aligned with said clamping elements for pushing the workpieces edgewise between said clamping elements; said aligning means comprising a convergent mouth with a pair of surface means forming a large inlet oriented toward said pusher means, and a narrower outlet oriented between said clamping elements; and said surface means being shiftable toward each other to a generally parallel relationship to bend and align the portions of the workpiece with the space between said clamping elements.

5. The apparatus in claim 1 wherein: said trimming tool means includes spaced elements to accommodate a pair of spaced workpieces; means for supporting a pair of spring sole and heel right and left workpieces, one above the other, with the upper one having the heel projecting diagonally downwardly at an acute angle and the lower one with the heel projecting diagonally upwardly at an acute angle; said securing means being clamping means for the pair of workpieces comprising a central spacer and a pair of upper and lower clamp elements shiftable toward said spacer to clamp the pair of workpieces; said advancing means adapted to push the pair of workpieces from said support means to said clamping means; and upper and lower sole bending and alignment means between said advancing means and said clamping means for the upper and lower workpieces; said upper sole bending and alignment means having tapered heel contacting surface area and flat sole contacting surface area to orient the heel of the workpieces into alignment with the sole for clamping and peripheral trimming; and said lower sole bending and alignment means comprising a convergent mouth with a pair of surface means forming a large inlet oriented toward said advancing means, and a narrower outlet oriented between said clamping elements; and said surface means being shiftable toward each other to a generally parallel relationship to bend the sole and align the sole and heel portions of the workpiece with respect to said clamping elements.

-6. The apparatus in claim 1 including means for supporting a pair of spring sole and heel workpieces of right and left feet, one above the other, said one with the heel projecting diagonally downwardly at an acute angle and said other with the heel projecting diagonally upwardly at an acute angle; said securing means comprising clamping means for the pair of workpieces comprising a central spacer and a pair of upper and lower clamp elements shiftable toward said spacer to clamp the pair of workpieces; said advancing means adapted to push a pair of soles from said supporting means to said clamping means; and upper and lower sole bending and alignment means between said advancing means and said clamping means, operable to receive the upper and lower workpieces and temporarily bend the heels and soles into alignment between the heels and the major front portion of the soles.

7. A method of peripherally trimming an angularly distorted spring sole and heel workpiece that is unattached to a shoe, such spring workpiece being characterized by a heel and an adjacent sole portion that projects diagonally at an acute angle from the major portion of the sole to which the heel is attached, such method comprising the steps of: temporarily bending the angularly distorted sole of the workpiece against its inherent bias to flatten the workpiece and align the heel into coplanar relation with the front major portion of the sole; and retaining the sole and heel workpiece in the aligned condition while engaging the periphery of the workpiece with a trimming tool; and then releasing the workpiece.

8. The method in claim 7 including the steps of: spacing clamping elements apart an amount just greater than the workpiece thickness when the workpiece portions are aligned, conducting said bending step prior to insertion of the workpiece between the clamping elements, then pushing the workpiece edgewise between the clamping elements, pressing the clamping elements against the aligned workpiece, peripherally trimming the workpiece, and releasing it.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,359,395 10/1944 Stacey 12-86.7 3,129,447 4/ 1964 Ralphs 1286.7 X 3,134,998 6/1964 Kunze et al 1286.7

PATRICK D. LAWSON, Primary Examiner 

